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Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by namaria on Thursday April 03, 2025 @04:58AM (#43566850)
Wow I really just read a .gov website trying to obscure a formula by multiplying 0.25 by 4.

I'm stunned.

https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/reciprocal-tariff-calculations

"To calculate reciprocal tariffs, import and export data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2024. Parameter values for ε and φ were selected. The price elasticity of import demand, ε, was set at 4.

Recent evidence suggests the elasticity is near 2 in the long run (Boehm et al., 2023), but estimates of the elasticity vary. To be conservative, studies that find higher elasticities near 3-4 (e.g., Broda and Weinstein 2006; Simonovska and Waugh 2014; Soderbery 2018) were drawn on. The elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs, φ, is 0.25."

Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by oefrha on Thursday April 03, 2025 @05:30AM (#43567108)
In practice I believe at least 90% of Americans can’t figure out what that formula actually means; but if they drop the epsilon phi bullshit only 70% can’t figure it out. So it’s pretty effective obfuscation after all.
Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by stabbles on Thursday April 03, 2025 @06:26AM (#43567512)
"Assuming that offsetting exchange rate and general equilibrium effects are small enough to be ignored"

Yes, let's assume the world is constant and changes are made in isolation.

Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by ta1243 on Thursday April 03, 2025 @08:43AM (#43568792)
What's the laden velocity of a spherical import with no air resistance?
Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by giantrobot on Thursday April 03, 2025 @09:43AM (#43569523)
African or European?
Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by kragen on Thursday April 03, 2025 @06:30AM (#43567548)
Thank you for finding this. It's extremely valuable for those of us who are trying to make sense of the tariffs.
Re:US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China – 20% on EU by myvoiceismypass on Thursday April 03, 2025 @09:47AM (#43569575)
This is the same president that took a sharpie to a map, to show the incorrect path of a storm, because he could not admit being wrong or making a mistake.

These people are either malicious or incompetent. That's been the case for every single day of the decade-ish that Trump has been foisted upon us.